


Now Is Not the End

by hithelleth



Category: Station 19 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fix-It, Nobody Dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-21 14:26:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18704161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hithelleth/pseuds/hithelleth
Summary: They deserved a soft ending. One that isn’t an ending at all but the beginning of the rest of their lives.





	Now Is Not the End

Vic waits with baited breath for that moment she is not ready for. Waits. Waits…

She must have spaced out for a second or two, because she startles to awareness with Doctor Pierce and a nurse in the room. A nurse who is taking Lucas’s blood?

Lucas’s hand is warm in hers and he is breathing and the monitor is showing pulse and the clock on the wall must be broken because it can’t have been hours and she can’t…

“What’s going on?” she whispers, her voice not quite working.

“I’ll run some more tests,” Dr Pierce says. Which is doctor-speak for _I don’t know_ and _don’t get your hopes up_.

***

Of course, the first thing Lucas does after waking up – and smiling; he smiles and _Vic’s_ heart almost stops – is complain about them not following his DNR request. Although they did, which is exactly what she tells him.

“We did… wait, you’re alive and you’re complaining?!” she shout-whispers and she is about to read him the riot act because she is absolutely terrified and…

He is saved by Dr Pierce’s arrival. “Good, you’re awake. Your calcium levels are slightly up.”

She raises her hand to stop the questions and that other thing that Vid doesn’t dare name that springs to life in some deep dark corner of her heart.

“If,” Dr Pierce emphasises, “if the calcium levels up enough that I can operate you might have a chance.”

It is almost worse than before, with this minuscule spark of hope, when all Vic can do is pray, _please, please, please,_ running on repeat in her head, and stay.

***

As the wait continues, the halls go empty, firefighters returning to their duties and lives.

Her team alternate coming back on breaks to bring food and eventually, as Lucas threatens to kick her off his visitor list, Travis makes her leave long enough to shower and change.

On the third day, Dr Pierce is able to do the valve replacement, although it then takes whole excruciating 24 hours before he wakes from the surgery and a few more days for him to be stable enough to be transferred to Grey-Sloan.

***

“You are late!”

“I made Jennifer take a detour,” Lucas says in a way of apology when his sister brings him home from the hospital.

They have decided not to waste a single moment and just move in together, albeit gradually, given that there is a long recovery ahead of him, and have gone through HR already – Frankel wasn’t happy when she conducted her initial interview in the hospital waiting room, but she made a concession for special circumstances – since they pretty much outed themselves to the entire department anyway.

“We were late because I wanted to get this,” he says later when they are snuggling in front of the TV they aren’t really paying attention to and produces a small box out of his pocket. “Although I should’ve probably done it sooner.”

“I don’t know, maybe I should get _you_ a ring, since I was the one who proposed,” Vic teases to chase away the feeling of her breath catching in her throat.

“I proposed first.”

“No, you didn’t! You came up with a toilet-paper solution to circumvent the rules. _I_ proposed.”

“All right.”

He makes to get up, but she doesn’t let him, gently pushing him back into the couch, so he gives up and simply looks in her eyes as he opens the box.

“Victoria Hughes, will you marry me? For real?”

She hardly lets him finish speaking before she is laughing and saying yes and kissing him all at once while he slides the ring on her finger.

***

The wedding is a short, simple ceremony in a park with only her friends from the station and Sullivan and Jennifer and Frankel – who’s almost unrecognisable smiling and with her hair down – present.

He is not allowed to fly yet, so they spend their honeymoon week in a small seaside resort in SoCal, with sunshine and swimwear and dazzling sunsets.

(And shirtlessness. Definitely shirtlesness.)

They celebrate their one-year anniversary on the rooftop of station 19. It’s Miller’s birthday, but he doesn’t mind. In fact, his exact words are, “Thank God, we get to have cake and not make it about my age.”

***

“We’re going on vacation,” she tells Lucas while he stares blearily at the suitcases packed in the living room.

“We can’t just go on vacation. I have work.” He points a finger at her. “You have work.”

“Nope.” She shakes her head. “Got leave. And you’re off for a week, I already cleared it with Frankel.”

He takes a cup of coffee from her hands and sits down. “You know this is exactly the sort of currying favours –”

“Uh-uh,” she stops him from continuing. “Currying favours would be if I did it for myself. But I’m just making sure my husband – who should be taking it easy by doctor’s orders anyway – makes good use of the ton of his unused vacation days. Besides, do you really think Frankel would let me get away with even trying to curry favours?”

He chuckles. “No, I guess not. So, where are we going?”

Vic grins. “That’s a surprise.”

A surprise he only figures out at the airport. “Aspen, really? I thought you hated the idea.”

“I didn’t say I hated it.” She shrugs. “And, well, you tried beaches and swimwear. It’s only fair I see what’s up with mountains and snowsuits.”

***

“I could get used to this,” Vic says. It is dark outside and she is wearing one of his sweaters while they are snuggling in front of the fireplace. “Mountain cabins and fireplaces, not bad at all.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Mhm.” She looks up at him.

“Good.” He drops a kiss on her forehead. “For the rest of our lives?”

It is less a question than a statement, and he isn’t referring to mountain lodges and fireplaces anymore, and Vic smiles and cuddles closer to him, confirming, “For the rest of our lives.”

~ FIN ~

**Author's Note:**

> If GA can bluff cures for all sorts of ‘untreatable’ conditions on weekly basis, I can bluff Ripley surviving his condition, right? Because that dying business is not acceptable. 
> 
> I was devastated and angry (still am, but slightly less so) and I needed a fix-it fic (we cope in different ways at different times and grief fic just isn’t doing it for me this time) and if no one was going to write one, I had to do it myself. I hope you liked it?
> 
> Comments are always welcome.


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